It’s safe to say that Kanye West has had an… interesting few years. The formerly beloved and influential rapper, producer, and designer had long been known for making controversial statements and pushing boundaries, but becoming a Nazi? Going a teeny bit too far.
And we’re not just lightly saying he became a Nazi. West released a swastika t-shirt, made a tonne of explicitly antisemitic comments, declared that he “loved Hitler” and released a song titled Heil Hitler. Okay, we get it! You’re a Nazi!
Ye’s full apology via The Wall Street Journal pic.twitter.com/vLad7Pdq60
— GoodAssSub (@GoodAssSub) January 26, 2026
Now, courtesy of a full-page ad in The Wall Street Journal, West has attributed all of this to brain damage suffered in a near-fatal car accident 25 years ago, which he says damaged his prefrontal cortex. This frontal lobe injury “caused serious damage to my mental health and led to my bipolar type-1 diagnosis.”
“I said and did things I deeply regret. Some of the people I love the most, I treated the worst. You endured fear, confusion, humiliation, and the exhaustion of trying to love someone who was, at times, unrecognizable. Looking back, I became detached from my true self.”
West clarifies that when he’s in the grip of these episodes, he doesn’t believe himself to be “sick”, saying it’s like living in a world where “everyone else is overreacting. You feel like you’re seeing the world more clearly than ever, when in reality you’re losing your grip entirely. Once people label you as ‘crazy,’ you feel as if you cannot contribute anything meaningful to the world.”
“I became detached from my true self”
And, as a result, he entered a self-destructive spiral centered on Nazi iconography: “In that fractured state I gravitated toward the most destructive symbol I could find, the swastika, and even sold t-shirts bearing it.”
Honestly, he sounds sincere about his apology, saying that he’s let down the Black community in particular:
“To the black community – which held me down through all of the highs and lows and the darkest of times. The black community is, unquestionably, the foundation of who I am. I am so sorry to have let you down. I love us.”
He also underlines that he’s now on new medication, in therapy, and trying to live cleanly and with purpose. He concludes, “I’m not asking for sympathy, or a free pass, though I aspire to earn your forgiveness. I write today simply to ask for your patience and understanding as I find my way home.”
As a former fan, I’m just hoping this new version of West sticks around. Frankly, after all the Nazi stuff, it’s been difficult to enjoy any of his music for the last few years. But, if it is true that all this is a consequence of literal brain damage, I guess fans can start to forgive.
Published: Jan 26, 2026 12:15 pm